Okay, it’s time to apply what you’ve learned to an Analogies practice set.
If your vocabulary is smokin’ and you can power through these using only Steps
1–3 of our step method, fantastic. If you need some of the extra ammunition
we’ve provided to get you through, that’s fine too—whatever gets the point.
Don’t forget to thoroughly review the explanations that follow the set.

Directions: In each of the
following questions, a related pair of words or phrases is
followed by five pairs of words or phrases. Select the pair that
best expresses a relationship similar to that expressed in the
original pair.

1.

ICONOCLAST : CONVENTION ::

(A)

tailor : robe

(B)

sycophant : passion

(C)

pariah : friendship

(D)

anarchist : government

(E)

firefighter : safety

2.

ANGUISH : EMOTION ::

(A)

frenetic : fascination

(B)

money : compensation

(C)

data : dossier

(D)

cabbage : vegetable

(E)

burning : sensation

3.

COVERT : SURREPTITIOUS ::

(A)

passive : forward

(B)

sociable : affable

(C)

causal : remorseful

(D)

taciturn : auspicious

(E)

outmoded : contemporary

4.

GLUTTON : WILLPOWER ::

(A)

charlatan : hoax

(B)

traitor : fidelity

(C)

platoon : squad

(D)

savant : gumption

(E)

coward : courage

5.

PROPAGANDA : OPINION ::

(A)

sermon : morality

(B)

existentialism : philosophy

(C)

newspaper : editorial

(D)

desiccant : moisture

(E)

institution : assignment

Guided Explanations

1. D

Step 1: Connect the Dots. An iconoclast
is a person who attacks traditional ideas, so we have an Action relationship
in this pair: An iconoclast opposes
convention. Notice that we could term this an Attribute
analogy, in the sense that defying convention is inherent in being an
iconoclast. Don’t get hung up on the terminology—the Analogy types we
discussed are meant to make it easier to recognize the patterns that show up
on the test, and they may overlap in some cases.

Step 2: Create a Template. “X opposes Y” is a
straightforward generalization of the connection we uncovered.

Step 3: Make the Match. A tailor may
create or modify a robe but wouldn’t
oppose one, so eliminate A.
Sycophant is a hard word, so let’s keep B
on the table while we see what else we have to work with. A
pariah is a recluse or an outsider, but not necessarily
by choice. It therefore doesn’t work to say that a pariah
opposes friendship in the same way that an
iconoclast opposes convention, so we
can cross off C as close but no cigar. D matches
perfectly, however: An anarchist opposes
government as part of his or her nature in the same way as
the iconoclast’s nature is to oppose
convention. As for E,
firefighter and safety are too closely
related to fit our template.

You should feel confident enough about D to select it and
move on, without even worrying about the choice we skipped. It’s actually
nice to not have to worry about a difficult word like
sycophant in B. Having confidence in a choice
that works is another way to get around difficult vocabulary words, both in
Analogy and Antonym questions. In case you were wondering, a
sycophant is a person who tries to win favor through
flattery, so the relationship between that word and passion
is fairly ambiguous. If you did know the meaning of
sycophant, you could have chopped B from the
get-go as a weak link.

2. E

Step 1: Connect the Dots. This one may not seem too
difficult at first glance, but sometimes the seeming simplicity of a
relationship between the words of the original pair may cause you to jump at
a connection that’s too broad. Anguish is a type of
emotion, so that may have been the gist of the
connection you formed.

Step 2: Create a Template. We saw in Step 1 that the
words fall into the Category type, so you may have settled on “X is a type
of Y” for your template.

Step 3: Make the Match. We can quickly chop A
as a Weak Link choice, since there’s no strong or obvious connection
between frenetic (“chaotic,” “hectic”) and
fascination. And our template helps us axe
C, since data may be contained in a
dossier (“report,” “database”) but can’t be said to be
a type of dossier. But that’s where we run into trouble,
since B, D, and E all fit our
template perfectly. That means we’ll have to move on to Step 4—which is,
after all, why it’s there.

Step 4: Narrow the Connection. We know the connection we
formed in Step 1 and generalized in Step 2 is too broad because it
encompasses three different choices. We’ll therefore need to get more
specific. Anguish is not just any old kind of
emotion; it’s an intense and unpleasant type of
emotion. Does that help? You bet: While some people—children
especially—might argue that cabbage is an intense and
unpleasant type of vegetable, the GRE test makers would never go with such a
loose connection for the right answer to an Analogy question, so D
is incorrect. And of course there’s a better choice that’s spot on
anyway: Burning is an intense and unpleasant
sensation in the same way that anguish
is an intense and unpleasant emotion.
Money, for most people, is a pleasant form of
compensation, so B doesn’t fit our
narrowed parameters. All it took was narrowing the connection a bit to find
the right answer. Select E and move on.

3. B

Step 1: Connect the Dots. To demonstrate some of the
other strategies presented in this chapter, let’s assume that you have some
trouble with the words in this question. If you don’t know the meaning of
covert and/or surreptitious, you can’t
very well form a connection, can you? But as we’ve demonstrated, all is not
lost, so let’s see how we might sneak around this temporary setback.

Step 2: Create a Template. Since we’re assuming we don’t
know the words, we have nothing to form a template, so we’ll get right to
Step 3.

Step 3: Make the Match. Let’s use our “Work Backward”
strategy to see if we can eliminate some choices or deduce anything about
the relationship in the original pair. Casual and
remorseful aren’t particularly difficult words, so
perhaps you noticed that there’s no solid connection between being
informal/relaxed and being
sad. So we can chop C as a weak link,
immediately shifting the odds in our favor. Now, perhaps you noticed
something interesting about the pairs in A and E:
They both contain antonyms. Being passive is the opposite
of being forward, and being outmoded
(“obsolete,” “out-of-date,” “passé”) is the opposite of being
contemporary (“fashionable,” “current,” “modern”).
Since A and E contain the same exact kind of
relationship, neither can be correct since we’d have no way to choose
between them. That means that we can eliminate A and
E, and also tells us that the words in the original pair can’t be
antonyms.

We’ve deduced that A, C, and E
are all unlikely to be correct. At this point you may know the words
in B and D sufficiently well to choose between
them; if not, then it’s a toss-up between those as you take your best guess.
Notice that even if you don’t know what covert,
surreptitious, affable, taciturn, or
auspicious means, you can still use a bit of strategy to
give yourself a fifty-fifty chance—not bad if you crashed and burned on the
vocabulary front.

In case you’re wondering, B is correct because
covert and surreptitious are synonyms,
both meaning “secret” or “stealthy.” Sociable and
affable are synonyms as well, both meaning “friendly”
or “outgoing.” As for D, taciturn means
“quiet” or “introverted” and thus has no direct connection to
auspicious, which means “favorable” or “promising.”

Don’t get us wrong—knowing the vocab is clearly the most effective way
to go, but most test takers encounter words they don’t know at some point on
Analogy questions, and it’s helpful to have a few techniques at your
disposal to help you narrow the field to make an informed guess. If you
found yourself baffled at some of the words in this one, then a guess
between B and D would be pretty good under the
circumstances.

4. E

We’ll demonstrate this one from both directions: first as if you’re
good with the vocab, and then working backward from the choices in case you
had some trouble.

Step 1: Connect the Dots. A glutton is
someone who eats or drinks to excess, and if you knew that, you’d have
little trouble connecting the dots: A glutton lacks
willpower, which is a fine example of an Attribute
analogy stated in the negative.

Step 2: Create a Template. “An X lacks Y” is a fine
template for the connection from Step 1; so without further ado, let’s make
the match.

Step 3: Make the Match. A coward lacks
courage. This fits the template perfectly. The only
other choice that fits the template at all is B: a
traitor lacks fidelity. However, faced
with these two possibilities, E is the better choice because
just like the original, it speaks to a lack of a personal quality leading to
the degradation of the individual lacking that quality. In contrast, the
traitor lacks fidelity to another person or cause, not to
himself or herself, so the match isn’t as complete. E gets the
point.

Working Backward

In the best-case scenario, an Analogy question need not be any
more difficult than this—if, of course, you know the meaning of the
words in question. If you didn’t know the words here, then your
encounter with question 4 might have gone a little something like this—

“Glutton? What’s that? Who knows . . . Wait—I do know what
willpower means; that’s what I use to stop myself
from eating all that chocolate. I can’t form a connection, but let
me see if I can work backward from the choices . . .”

This line of thinking is right on the mark, making the best of a
difficult situation. Beginning with A, a
charlatan perpetrates a hoax. Even if
you didn’t know what glutton means, is it likely that a
glutton perpetrates a willpower?
Um . . . no. As for B, a traitor lacks
fidelity (loyalty), and the unknown
glutton could lack willpower
(something many of us lack), so we’ll hold on to that one for now.
Choice C serves up a Composition-type connection: A
platoon is made up of squads. Can
anything be made up of willpower? Doesn’t sound likely,
so eliminate C. In D, a
savant is a really smart person, which has nothing
directly to do with gumption (“guts,” “bravery”), so
we’ll chop that one as a weak link. (Remember: No choice that contains
words ambiguously related to each other can be correct in an Analogy
question.) That leaves E: A coward lacks
courage, and we decided earlier that the unknown
word could possibly lack willpower, so E
could logically work. So even if you were hazy on the meaning of
glutton, you could still use the strategies we’ve
discussed to narrow down the choices to B and
E. As we saw in our first explanation to this one, E
is the choice that works best.

5. A

Step 1: Connect the Dots. It’s likely that you know the
meaning of the words in the original, so let’s work forward from those. The
pair is a good example of a Function relationship, as the purpose of
propaganda is to influence opinion.

Step 2: Create a Template. We can replace the specifics
with X and Y to form this template: “The purpose of X is to influence Y.”

Step 3: Make the Match. A fits the template, as it’s
appropriate to say that the purpose of a sermon is to
influence morality. But let’s check to see if anything
better comes along. Existentialism is a type of
philosophy, so B exhibits a different
relationship than that of the original pair. Be careful of C:Newspaper and propaganda sound related in
some way, as does opinion and editorial.
Sometimes the test makers get tricky and try to fool you into selecting a
choice with words that remind you of the words in the original, but the
connection between the words in C doesn’t mimic the connection
of the original pair: A newspaper may contain an
editorial, but we wouldn’t say that the
purpose of a newspaper is to influence editorials. D
is closer, since its words do fall into the Function category: The
purpose of a desiccant (“drying agent”) is to remove
moisture. If instead of using the word
influence in your template, your template says “the
purpose of X is to do something to Y,” then D might look as
good as A, and you’d need to employ Step 4 of our method to
narrow the connection. But as it stands, A is right in line
with the template we formed in Step 2, while D is not, so we
can eliminate D as close but not a perfect match.
E is easier to discard; it’s a Weak Link choice since there’s no
direct connection between institution and
assignment.